Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?/References

• In the opening segment, Peter watches Dennis Miller Live. The segment parodies Dennis Miller’s use of multi-syllabic words and obscure historical references (“I don’t wanna go on a rant here, but America’s foreign policy makes about as much sense as Beowulf having sex with Robert Fulton at the First Battle of Antietam. I mean when a Neo-Conservative defenestrates, it’s like Raskolnikov filibustered deoxymonohydroxinate”). Ironically, the word Peter has trouble with is "rant".
• The part at the basketball game where Peter imagines being alone with Cindi (the pretty cheerleader with long, blond pigtails), and watches her try to seduce him with the sexy music in the background parodies a scene between Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Angela (Mena Suvari) in the film American Beauty. Both scenes end with the cheerleaders (Cindi and Angela) unzipping their shirts. However, fried chicken humorously flies out of Cindi’s shirt instead of lush rose petals like Angela’s.
• When Peter mistakes Chris’s slang-peppered speech for speaking in tongues, he tries to perform an exorcism, similar to that in the classic 1973 horror film The Exorcist.
• Peter’s monologue/complaint about Lois’s dinner resembles the monologues of any Woody Allen movie. In particular, it is a potential reference to the movie Annie Hall. It could also be a reference to writer George Orwell who mentioned in his essay Why I Write of forming narratives of his daily life prior to writing professionally.
• In a cutaway, Peter and Chris are playing Operation on a homeless person instead of the game board.
• The scene showing Ireland before the “discovery” of alcohol features technology similar to the cartoon series The Jetsons.
• The scene showing Thomas Griffin is a possible parody of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose lectures were said to be punctuated with long periods of silent rumination, broken only by a metaphysical question such as, "What is a chair?"
• A cutaway shows Stewie, drunk on Mai Tais encouraging O.J. Simpson not to tolerate ex-wife Nicole Brown being with other men.
• Stewie makes a note to himself to try to understand the cheerleaders’ fixation with the “homosexuals” in the boy band ’N Sync.
• Peter watches a comedian who makes jokes about Jheri curl, a popular, glossy hairstyle among African Americans in the 1980s. The comedian jokes that the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred because “some brother fell in the ocean.” Peter responds by saying, “Oh, God, I remember that; and all those seals died.”
• The professor of Peter’s African American studies class mentions Thurgood Marshall’s 1967 appointment to the Supreme Court. Peter responds by “whooping,” in a manner similar to audience members on The Arsenio Hall Show.
• Cleveland receives reparations from the family who enslaved his ancestors but, because the family has become poor white trash, they could only give him a tray of Rice Krispie treats.
• Trying to convince the group of black men that he’s one of them, Peter borrows heavily from a speech by 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. However, instead of referencing various incidents in the civil rights movement, Peter mentions episodes of 1970s/1980s sitcoms with black characters, including The Jeffersons, Good Times, Diff’rent Strokes, and The Facts of Life.
• After Peter’s speech, he is cheered on by the junkyard gang from the cartoon Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, although the title character is not among them.
• Peter uses his reparations money to turn his den into the set from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, sings a comical variation of the theme song, convinces Brian to play the genie Jambi, references the King of Cartoons, and screams when Lois says the “secret word” (which is “ridiculous”).
• Peter's new clothing may be a subtle reference to the play and film "A Raisin in the Sun". One of the characters, Benitha, dons traditional African clothing to show her desire to appreciate her heritage.
• The rap song Peter does at the end of the episode is a parody of the end of the song "Happy People" by R.Kelly, though it contains some of the same sentiments that correspond to the theme of the episode.

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